"labour .. a strong stable government"

How can they use this slogan ..
"labour .. a strong stable government you can trust" their advert should be deemed as false advertising. Why are we having an early election? Is it just me, or is it because the government is so unstable? And trust .. what was up with that corn again helen?

Clark entered the election with the false hope of winning outright she has forgooten that this is a mmp not a fpp election and has fort it in the old style.

A majiority labour Government would be stable.
It is becoming increasingly unlikely.

New Zealand citzens crave stability the result uis becoming a lotto lucky dip with out much chance of the majority of ticket holders winning.

Whats up with the corn? Nothing ....you may want to research a bit more into the facts on that one.

I have to admit that there were aspect of this election that I've enjoyed watching.

Now if I were to make a list of around 3,800,000 New Zealanders I'd most like to have dinner with Helen Clark wouldn't be on the list. Don't get me wrong. I'm not prejudiced. I have nothing against female impersonators.

That said I must confess that she has given me some moments of pure amusement. She really is becoming the Monty Python of politics.

Of course there was absolutely no reason for an early election except that Helen was convinced that Labour would win an outright majority in parliament. This just shows that art and economics is not the only fields where she is completely innept.

With the fantasy of ruling alone firmly implanted in her mind she set out a strategy- First step was to turn her own coalition partners into evil incarnate. Not that they aren't evil incarnate, it's just that she never wanted to publish that fact before.

So she started out with a campaign built around keeping the Greens out of power. Of course the only time the Greens have had any power is when Labour has given it to them. The Green agenda requires Labour's support or nothing happens. But since the Greens decided to be openly loony this time (as opposed to closet loonies), Clark targeted them. In the process she hoped she'd position herself toward the middle.

Now that campaign was one which most people thought phony -- almost as phony as Harre's "private polling". But Clark figured she had everything in the bag and could afford to stab her own allies in the back. (What scruples!). So she started planting numerous sharpened object into the backs of her own closest supporters. She as much admitted that she merely used them and was now discarding them. She was still under the delusion that she had the entire election won outright. WHOOPS!

But the polls were showing slipping. Then the slips became landslides. From 52% they dropped to 40%. In fact some polls had them under 40% as even a week ago. Media polls were late in showing the dramatic drop in Labour support while private polls were predicting it at least three weeks ago.

At this point Clark got nervous. All of a sudden she needed the very people she attacked. So suddenly she tried to be nice. She started smiling at people and pretending the knifes in their backs didn't come from her own kitchen.

But how does this sit with voters. Two weeks ago the Greens were the Great Satan to Clark (not that ius is really reasonable to believe otherwise- it's just that Helen was now saying it publicly). Now she's having to consider bringing them into power with her again. And you can bet the Greens will demand a much higher price for their trouble.

Even with the Greens current polls have parliament split right down the middle. So Helen will have to build a coalition of the far loony left Greens and moderates together. If she manages it will be a very unstable coaltion to say the least. And the things become interesting. Clark was convinced she would have complete control of parliament and called the early election to guarantee that outcome. Now it appears she'll have almost no power. WHOOPS!

For her coalition to keep her in office she'll have to give in to her coalition partners. In other words she'll have to hand them the power in order to stay in office. She can put 'Prime Minister' on her desk but she'll have a hard time setting any real policy direction. Of course the more power she hands the Greens the more likely it is that other coaltion partners might bolt. And the more likely it is that the voters will turn decidedly against her and soon.

So to hold on to office for a short while she has to create a very unstable mixture of partners. Each of them knows she can't rule without them so they will each make demands - demands that will conflict with the demands made by other partners in the government. How long can that last?

And when a new election is called Clark will have some explaining to do to the public. The loony legacy of the Greens will haunt her. But she's already played the "I-hate-the-Greens" card in this election. And then she discarded it quite quickly. Next time when she tries to persuade people to vote Labour to keep the Greens out of power they'll remember this election.

I fear she has painted herself into a rather unpleasant corner. But I'm not complaining. Watching Helen squirm and flip flop like a fish out of water is rather enjoyable.

I think you overstate the problems labour have. They needed to call an early election after the Alliance imploded. They were getting nowhere getting policy through with the 2 factions still warring. They now fact the scenario of being a minority govt with the support of the greens. I think the need to have any other parties involved (with exception of jim who is basically labour now) could lead to another election. I don't think that will be needed though as United's support is likely to be down to 3% or so on polling day and the greens and labour will have enough seats together.

False advertising. Mind you, I'd say that ms
Clark could be accused of the same by saying
she's a woman....